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Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iPhone OS 3.0

Announced on March 17th, then promised for worldwide release on June 17, Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade was officially released for public consumption earlier today. The third major release of the iPhone OS brings a number of features that many will likely feel have been too long in coming to the iPhone platform; however, this latest release succeeds in making the iPhone OS feel more grown up and ready to face a wider audience.

Downloading and Installing

As with all previous iPhone and iPod touch updates, the iPhone OS 3.0 is downloaded and installed via iTunes. Note that you must be running iTunes 8.2 to receive the update, which is a free and automatic download for all iPhone models. For iPod touch users, this is a more optional update that must be purchased from the iTunes Store for $10.

Other than the purchase requirement for iPod touch users, the download and installation process is relatively transparent. Simply use the “Check for Updates” option found on the iPhone Summary page in iTunes 8.2 and it should locate, download and install the 3.0 update automatically. In some cases, iTunes may already indicate that an update is available, in which case you will simply see an “Update” button instead of a “Check for Updates” button.

Note that the installation may or may not result in the wiping of your device’s existing media, contacts, and other data; it should not happen, but can under certain conditions. In addition to the backups that iTunes normally keeps, an additional backup of your device will automatically be made prior to applying the update. This is simply as a precaution, as the update process does not normally remove any data from your device, but simply applies the update over the previous iPhone OS version. In the event that the device is completely wiped clean, using the backup and re-synchronizing your media will take some time, but fully restore your device to its prior contents.

iPhone vs iPod touch

With the iPhone OS 3.0 release, Apple has brought the iPhone and iPod touch back to feature parity in terms of software. In November, Apple added iPhone-only enhancements to the Maps application such as Google Street View and transit directions. iPhone 3.0 now brings these features to the iPod touch as well.

There are still obvious hardware differences between the iPhone and iPod touch of course, and iPhone 3.0 features will differ slightly on each platform due to these hardware differences, however the software-only features between the iPhone and iPod touch appear to have come back into line with the iPhone 3.0 release.

General and System-Wide Changes

The most significant changes in iPhone 3.0 are not specific to any one particular app, but rather focus on changes to the operating system and UI as a whole. Some of these are relatively minor, while others are very significant.

Home Screen

While many were expecting a significantly revamped home screen layout in iPhone 3.0 with better application organization, the changes to the home screen are minimal and almost entirely cosmetic in nature. The default home screen layout remains essentially the same other than a slight reorganization in the third and fourth rows to accommodate the new Voice Memos app, which can of course still be user-customized in the same way as before—users updating their devices will have their existing app layout preserved with the Voice Memos app appearing in the first open icon slot.

Other cosmetic changes to the home screen include the renaming of the Text app to “Messages,” along with a new icon to reflect 3.0’s new support for Multimedia Messaging (MMS); there’s also an updated design for the Stocks icon with sharper peaks and no calendar months at the bottom of the icon. The iPod and Phone icons also receive minor cosmetic diagonal line background tweaks to bring their designs more in-line with the new Messages icon, for whatever reason.

The Home screen now also supports a total of eleven pages of apps, up from the previous nine-page limit. This brings the total number of apps that can be usably installed on the iPhone up to 180 versus the previous limit of 148.

A small magnifying glass now appears to the left of the white and gray page indicator dots above the dock, and swiping to the left of the first Home screen page will now take you to the Spotlight Search screen. Further, pressing the home button from the first home screen page of icons will also take you to the Spotlight Search screen, and pressing it again from there returns you back to the first page of icons.

Spotlight Search

iPhone 3.0 now includes the ability to search for content within certain apps on the iPhone, either from within the specific apps themselves or globally from the Spotlight Search screen found on the left-most home screen.

Prior versions of the iPhone OS provided a search bar within the Contacts app, and in iPhone 3.0 similar search bars have now also been added to the Mail, Calendar, Notes, and iPod applications. As with the Contact search, entering text into the search bar in these apps will search the content within that particular app. Most apps open with this search bar hidden - you will need to scroll up to see it, and some apps only show the search bar in certain views—List view in the Calendar app, for example.

The Mail app adds one additional interesting search-related feature. When you first enter text into the search bar, a list of buttons appears immediately below the search bar to allow you to further refine your search to certain mail-specific fields such as from, to and subject. Mail also provides the ability to extend your search beyond the messages stored on your device and onto your Mail server via IMAP.

It’s worth noting that Apple promoted this as a feature of MobileMe, but the Mail search itself works with any IMAP-based e-mail account and not just MobileMe accounts. There is a downside, however: the search only includes message headers; a full-text search of message content is not performed, either locally on your device or on the server.

The Spotlight Search feature from the main Home screen simply allows you to perform a search through all of your searchable applications at once. Entering any text into the Spotlight Search screen will present a list of results across all of your searchable applications, organized by app and identified by each application’s icon. Tapping on a result will open that specific application and bring you to the selected search result.

You can choose which search results are included in the main Spotlight Search and which order they are displayed in from your device’s Settings, under General, Home, Search Results. Simply tap each category to enable or disable, or drag them up and down the list to reorder how they’re presented to you in the Spotlight Search results.

Widescreen Mode and Landscape Keyboard Support

With iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has finally brought a long-requested feature to built-in apps in the form of landscape orientation viewing and the wider landscape keyboard. Among the built-in apps, the landscape keyboard was previously only available in the Safari browser. With iPhone OS 3.0, this has now been expanded to include the new Messages application, Mail, Notes and Contacts. Landscape viewing in any form remains conspicuously missing from the built-in Calendar application. It should also be noted that landscape viewing of Contacts is only available in the separate “Contacts” application—the contacts section in the Phone application remains in portrait view only.

iPhone 3.0 also adds a new widescreen view to the built-in Stocks application. Turning your device while viewing the Stocks app will present a detailed widescreen stock chart view, and you can switch between stock charts by swiping left and right in the same way as you would for Photos.

Note that as with previous iPhone versions, third-party apps must still be specifically designed for landscape viewing and keyboard support. There’s nothing magical that the new iPhone OS does to automatically allow landscape viewing and keyboard for any other apps—Apple has simply chosen to update a few of their own core apps to provide a landscape orientation mode.

Editing Enhancements: Cut, Copy and Paste and More

For serious smartphone users, the ability to copy and paste text was quite possibly the single most glaring omission in the iPhone OS over the past two years. iPhone OS 3.0 finally brings this feature to the table, and implements it in a very polished manner.

First, as one would expect, the iPhone OS 3.0 cut/copy/paste features are not app-specific, but rather work system-wide across any application that supports text editing and entry fields. This means that there is no extra support required by third-party developers or applications to take advantage of this, and even apps that were released for iPhone OS 2.0 last summer can still benefit from the iPhone OS 3.0’s new text editing capabilities, provided they’re using standard text editing controls.

To start selecting text in any app, simply hold down your finger where you want your text selection to begin, in a manner similar to that used to move the insertion point in previous iPhone OS versions. A pop-up menu will appear with options to begin selecting text, select all displayed text, or paste in any content that is already on your clipboard.

After tapping select or select all, two blue dots will appear around your selection which you can then manipulate to highlight the text that you would like to cut or copy. The pop-up menu will also change to provide options to cut the selected text, copy the selected text, or paste the content of the clipboard over the selected text.

Note that you can also double-tap to select an entire word and can use the keyboard delete key or start typing to replace any selected text without cutting it to the clipboard.

The text selection and cut/copy/paste capabilities are not limited to plain text, either. The iPhone OS also handles selection of rich text and graphics from within applications such as Safari, which can be copied to the clipboard and then pasted into a rich-text field somewhere else, such as into a new message in the Mail or Messages applications.

Of course, the new selection features make it too easy to accidentally banish entire chunks of text from your screen, so iPhone 3.0 also has another new hidden text-editing trick up its sleeve: undo. Simply give your iPhone or iPod touch a shake while editing in any text field, and you’ll be offered the opportunity to undo your changes, whether you’ve simply deleted a few characters or an entire paragraph.

Shaking the device a second time after an undo will offer a chance to undo the next-previous action, or redo the undone action. Several levels of undo/redo are supported.

In-Line Links

With the new copy and paste capabilities of iPhone OS 3.0, in-line links to information such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and URLs now gain additional options. While tapping on a link will behave the same as it did previously, you can now tap-and-hold on a linked item to bring up a pop-up menu of additional options for things you can do with that information. For example, tapping on a phone number or e-mail address will give you options to call the number, send a text message, or use it for a new or existing contact. Tapping on a URL will offer options to open the URL or copy it to the clipboard.

Comments

1

“There is a downside, however: the search only includes message headers; a full-text search of message content is not performed, either locally on your device or on the server. “

Other reviews (such as on Ars) have specifically shown that it did include emails with the results in the body (when choosing the “All” search in email.

So what’s the deal; does it search message bodies or not? Just from the screenshots on the Ars review alone it seems clear it did, as it included search results where the search term was not in the headers.

Posted by TomHandy in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 3:15 PM (CDT)

1

Great guide! I found something I thought I would share: when trying to select 6 pictures or more on my iPod disabled the email button; this may be to keep the size down or something. However, you can always just select as many as you want and copy and paste them into a new email.

Posted by mikeman118 in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 3:20 PM (CDT)

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#1: It definitely does not search full message content, either locally or on the server. This is easily tested just by pulling up an e-mail, picking an obscure word that wouldn’t otherwise appear and then searching on that word.

Bear in mind that just because a word doesn’t visibly appear in the search results listing doesn’t mean that it may not form part of the header that isn’t displayed. The message list doesn’t necessarily display full subject lines, for instance.

Posted by Jesse Hollington in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 3:33 PM (CDT)

1

Nice guide. Very clear.

I have not upgraded to 3.0 (maybe tomorrow if I have the time) but I have been noticing the sliding blue location dot in Maps for awhile now (when outside). If I open maps in the house, I get the location compass and five red dots spread out around the city. I assume because I cannot be pinpointed.

I was hoping for an audible click when tapping the stopwatch on. Alas. If that’s all I will have to complain about, then Apple has done well.

Posted by MidNorthCanuck in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 4:51 PM (CDT)

1

When 3.0 was released to developers there were rumors that it would enable Bluetooth via the Nike+ chip in the 2nd gen iPod touch. This was to allow stereo Bluetooth headphones like the iPhone now supports. Is this actually the case?

Posted by Neil in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 5:11 PM (CDT)

1

#4: The blue location dot has been appearing in Maps on the iPhone since the 3G added GPS capabilities. However, prior to v3.0, it only appeared *after* GPS coordinates were obtained. With 3.0 it appears immediately on both the iPhone and iPod touch.

#5: Yes, as noted above in the section on Bluetooth Enhancements, the 2G iPod touch now gets full Bluetooth support that is basically on-par with the iPhone. The only difference between the iPhone and iPod touch 2G Bluetooth is support for hands-free headsets, since this is a phone-specific feature. Note that the original iPod touch does not contain any Bluetooth hardware.

Posted by Jesse Hollington in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 5:36 PM (CDT)

1

Can’t seem to copy a phone number in the Contacts without dialing it. Could go into Edit and grab it fine. Click and hold as described above doesn’t seem to work in this context.

Posted by Dave Williams in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 7:53 PM (CDT)

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I don’t know why the email search doesn’t seem to work for you guys..

I just took a very specific text “XXPDK” from an email where it appeared towards the very bottom of the message.

Search found it in both the Mail app search under ALL, and the spotlight search on the home page.

Maybe your phone hasn’t finished indexing yet…

Full Mail search DOES work

Posted by Brian in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 8:08 PM (CDT)

1

I just did a similar test and searching the body of emails does NOT appear to work. I’m on an original first-gen iPhone (two more days till I get my 3G-S).

Posted by icruise in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 8:58 PM (CDT)

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I think I’ve already found a bug. For whatever reason, my playlists on my iPhone are not sorting correctly. Typically I sort all playlists by album; this is carried over to the iPhone. However, when I check my playlist on the iPhone, it’s all out of order - I have no idea what criteria Apple is actually using. In iTunes for both the editable playlist and the playlist on the iPhone as seen by iTunes, the sort order is as expected. Looks like the testers didn’t test thoroughly enough.

Plus, is anyone else getting the “Updating library” graphic on their iPhone when accessing the iPod app right after syncing?

Posted by Jay in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 9:15 PM (CDT)

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Thanks for the info Jesse! Great read while waiting for the download of OS3.0 to finish. Definitely making me salivate all that much more!

Posted by Michel Savoie in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 9:30 PM (CDT)

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So I installed 3.0 on my Ipod Touch 2G and everything went great. The only thing that I noticed that now holding down the home button to close Safari, or mail or music no longer works. I used to do this all the time to free up memory. I anyone else experiencing this. Is there some reason that this no longer works? It’s not the end of the world. I’m just curious why Apple would turn this off.

Posted by Tyler Laird in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 11:20 PM (CDT)

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Bacause holding down the Home key triggers Voice Control on the 3GS, so Apple removed this from the 3G and 2G.

Posted by Idomilliomos in Toronto on June 17, 2009 at 11:39 PM (CDT)

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On the subject on full mail search, I’m guessing that Spotlight indexes at intervals and hence that is a disparity in findings.

Posted by Young in Toronto on June 18, 2009 at 12:10 AM (CDT)

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The Mailsearch does Fulltext since the early betas - it just has to index first.

Anyone noticed the Messages.app bug:
Compose a new SMS, add another recipient = title changes to “group-SMS” (only if you have mms configured on your device) - quite costly to send an mms, compared to sending multiple SMS, where you have free quotas in most contracts.

Posted by Josh in Toronto on June 18, 2009 at 12:52 AM (CDT)

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I am having the same two problems as Jay. The orders of songs in my smart playlists do not transfer—no matter how I sort them in iTunes, the order on my iPhone stays the same. Also, the “Updating Library…” message appears every time (for a couple minutes) every time I open the iPod app after syncing.

Posted by Mike in Toronto on June 18, 2009 at 2:11 AM (CDT)

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@12: Hold down the power key until you get the “slide to power off” message. Then instead of sliding, hold down the Home key for 6 seconds. This will force quit the open app.

#13 I believe is correct as to why this has changed. Sure your old phone doesn’t do voice control, but I’m sure Apple wants to keep the mechanism uniform across all devices with the new OS.

Posted by Dyvim in Toronto on June 18, 2009 at 10:04 AM (CDT)

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@Tyler Laird
“The only thing that I noticed that now holding down the home button to close Safari, or mail or music no longer works…”

It’s still working this function. Apple has just changed the buttons.
Now, you have to press 2 buttons instead of one.
Hold down the on/off power button till you see the slider,
Then hold down the square button(the only button under the screen till your application closed.
It’s working very good for me.
hope it helps.
cheers

Posted by jaovao in Toronto on June 18, 2009 at 10:06 AM (CDT)

1

Any confirmation if Apple improved the audio quality w/ the 3.0 update? I swear playback of music via the iPod mode sounds clearer, warmer and far less brittle than in earlier device OS releases.